Dive summary:

• The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) has seen impressive results from its dynamic pricing pilot in its first year of experimentation and five years after the utility began rolling out its smart meters.
• In the pilot’s critical peak pricing group and time-of-use group, SMUD saw peak reductions of 6% to 26%. Meanwhile customers defaulted into the varying rates had an opt-out rate of only 10%.
• SMUD is now seeking approval from its board of directors to implement default dynamic pricing in 2018, potentially impacting utility policy everywhere.

From the article:
SMUD incorporated in-home displays as part of the pilot, but not smart thermostats because the utility “wanted to know the effects of rates on their own,” said Jimenez. “This was really a behavioral study.”